It started in 1997 with a real estate deal gone wrong. Yale University’s $10.7 billion endowment had taken partial ownership of a Colorado ranch that had millions of dollars worth of spring water bubbling underground. However, local residents and environmentalists opposed Yale’s plan to tap the water for profits, prompting the ranch’s owners to spend […]
VCs: First the bad news. The world at large may soon have access to internal rates of return (IRRs) for the 250 private equity funds in the California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s (CalPERS)$20 billion private equity portfolio. On the flip side, it appears unlikely that venture capitalists will be forced to explain how those IRRs […]
Since April, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System has devised a new business plan, named a set of investment advisers and approved a series of investment principles, but, until this month, it had not added a single name to its $4.4 billion private equity portfolio. After a four-month long period of hibernation, the $100 billion […]
Global private equity firm HarbourVest Partners has closed its fourth fund at $2.8 billion. HarbourVest International Private Equity Partners IV will comprise two separate partnerships and will be invested predominantly in Europe. Around $374 million has been allocated to direct investments, while $2.326 billion is reserved for the fund-of-funds and secondaries business. The firm has […]
The battle over private equity market transparency moved west last week, when The Mercury News sued the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) for refusing to release detailed private equity investment records. The complaint was filed in San Francisco Superior Court as a writ of mandate under the California Public Records Act, and a first […]
Late Friday, the University of Texas Investment Management Co. (UTIMCO) released fund-by-fund performance data for its private equity portfolio. The disclosure was made in response to several requests under the Texas Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and could represent the first private market domino to fall as the post-Enron public clamors for greater fiscal transparency. The […]
Robert Walton will head the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) as its interim chief executive until the pension fund names a permanent CEO in October. Walton will take the reins from James Burton, who is leaving after seven years as chief executive of the Sacramento-based public pension fund to head up the Wold Gold […]
Lane MacDonald was staring at a conference room monitor at Boston-based Alta Communications as the first news reports of the Sept. 11 attacks began streaming in. Few specifics had been provided, but MacDonald was already uneasy about the safety of his colleagues. “When I first heard the reports, I had some concern because we almost […]
As soon as contract negotiations are completed, Altius Associates Ltd., a private equity advisor with offices in Copenhagen, London and Richmond, Va., will begin managing CalSTRS’ $585 million international private equity portfolio. Although the Sacramento-based California State Teachers’ Retirement System nearly reached its allocation target for international private equity investments – 15% of the fund’s […]
Faced with the possibility that private equity write-downs could drive down the value of its $100 billion portfolio the California State Teacher’s Retirment System’s (CalSTRS) investment committee last week argued in favor of creating a benchmark to standardize measurement of private equity returns. If LPs are able to benchmark returns, they will be able to […]